Editorial | Follow Ms Lashley’s lead

The perennial tussle between the Government and public-sector unions usually revolves around one thing: how much more money or benefits the delegates and their leaders are able to squeeze out of the State.

But Beverley Lashley, the CEO of the National Library of Jamaica, shows that there are other indices that deserve attention.

A letter writer, Sharon Wright, in the Saturday edition of this newspaper, told of her difficulty in securing parking at the institution's East Street headquarters. Ms Lashley oversaw a staff member giving up parking temporarily and she was also there to greet the customer, Ms Wright, in the lobby. Ms Wright was effusive in her praise of the CEO.

It may seem minuscule, but Ms Lashley's customer service excellence, if replicated across the public sector, could have an infinitesimal impact on national productivity. Going the extra mile to drive state business is a core tenet of public service too often ignored in the wrangling over wages.